Strengthening tendons and ligaments?

I injured my knee last Tuesday shooting for a takedown from the knees. It was unreal - I couldn't believe that small thing could hurt me, but I could see the swelling and feel the pain. I've never had problems with my knees before...


I Saw the doc today. I've probably injured a collateral ligament in my knee and my meniscus might have popped out and back in again a bit. I was given the okay to lift and train as long as it doesn't cause pain (pain? what is that? weakness leaving the body?).

I was also told that my tendons and ligaments might not be as strong as my muscles these days, and it is not the first time he's told me this. I seem to get injured rather easily lately, and this could be part of the explanation.


I'm now looking for a way to strengthen my tendons and ligaments - I know they don't grow nearly as fast as muscles do, but there must be something I can do. Do any of you do anything, or know of anything that could help me in this endeavor? Do I need to do some high rep work for a longer period or what?

 

I hear glucosamine-chondroitin is good for that.

 

You guys keep recommending obscure supplements... this time though I'm actually tempted to see if it is even possible to get in Denmark.

 

Glucosamine is very common. I bet you can probably find it at your local pharmacy.

 

I could be wrong but I think heavy weights and low reps should be good for this, Is that right? Sometimes you hear that you should do reps in the middle like 8-15 reps to build tendon strength, which is right?

 

You hear both sides but doing high reps occasionally, at least in terms of prehab should be beneficial for tendon health. Tendons don't receive anywhere near the blood supply that muscles do which is why they can't recover/heal as quickly and as efficiently as muscle. The high reps help give them some extra blood, at least that

 

Glucosamine-chondroitin is not abscure (i.e. it will not obscure your abs). Actually I don't know about in Denmark, but in the U.S. you can get it in any drug store.

 

You may be aware of this already, but Tendons are simply the end parts of the muscles that attach to the fascial covering surrounding the bone. e.g. your calcaneal (Achilles) tendon is just the point where the group of muscles that make up the bulk of your calf converge and attach to the heel, for example.

If you are using a muscle, you can be damn sure that you're using the tendons as well, or you wouldn't be able to engage any joint movement!

Ligaments hold bones together, their job is to provide stability and so they typically don't move a great deal, so it might be hard to specifically train them. Any load bearing exercise will assist here though as you might expect. Perhaps some static work might assist, or stabilisation/balance drills.

Is your body positioning and aligment ok? I used to have some knee problems, but I found that running on a treadmill in front of a mirror (to make sure my knee alignment was correct) and doing lots of bodyweight squats/squats on an inflatable disc (again using a mirror to check my knees were in the optimum position and not flaring out to one side) really helped. Once I had 'learned' the optimum physical position my problems vanished pretty swiftly.

 

I'll look into Glucosamine and while I've often heard that low reps/high load should help joint stability, I've also heard viewpoints similar to Monger's before, which is why I'm curious.

 

I'm pretty sure I don't have any bad habits like that, and I don't have any history of injuries as such. I've never had any problems with my knees (before) and all the injuries I've had the last few years have been related to trauma or overtraining.

 

As some one with absolutely junk knees at the ripe old age of 25, I've found the best thing I've done for my knees as far as stability goes is lots of unilateral work. Also I'm sure you know this, but be crazy careful while it's still swollen as it's a perfectly good time to re-injure yourself and turn an acute problem into a chronic one.

 

ya aren't vitamins and minerals/ supplements by prescription only on in europe? if so thats really gay, my boss told me they can only get 250mg vitamin c there, by doctor recommendation

 

Going slow on the eccentric phase is to my knowledge the most efficient way to rebuild bad tendons, e.g. tendonisis.

For bad patella tendons, onelegged squat slow on the way down and boosting with good leg on the way up is a very very good exercise.

 

thats bullshit.

I have 500mg C vitamin sold in a 500 tab box and I bought it at a supermarket "health" section.

Dont know about glucosamine but the best vitamine/mineral etc stuff is sold on "health" stores and sports stores.

you can get vitamin/mineral mixtures that range from 200-1000% of the RDA. Tried one such brand ones and my good I was pissing alot, pissing green.

 

Absolutely... was a bit worried when the doctor told me I could train to the "pain limit"... I'm skipping MA this week but might start lifting again Wednesday. I figure controlled movements like that are safer (especially since it's a collateral ligament) and Wednesday is SOHP, DL and pullup day, so no squats yet (friday).


As for the glucosamine - what makes you guys so sure this stuff isn't just placebo for you? I checked with my mother (yet another doctor), and it seems it doesn't have any proven positive effect...

 

You can order Glucosamine via German or English online shops.

Newfood Inc. Onlineversand - Home
Andro-Shop f

 

Speaking of Vitamin C, I have an article (PDF, or I would post a link) from the guys at Brutaltraining saying that Big C helps to alleviate/repair tendonitis. I have tendonitis in my shoulders right now, and taking 3-5 grams per day of C has helped.

 

D-bol

No but seriously, I would look into using foam rolls/deep tissue release to lengthen the muscle, which should put less strain on the ligament. That will allow it to track properly, and keep the knee "hinging" correctly.

PM if you have questions about any of this.